There’s no bias against football, says Sturgeon

NICOLA Sturgeon has denied giving preferential treatment to rugby over football after refusing permission for Sunday’s Celtic-Motherwell game to be used as a ‘test’ match for fans returning to stadiums.

There has been growing bemusement over Holyrood’s rejection of the Celtic Park proposal, while at the same time allowing the Scottish Rugby Union to host 700 supporters at tonight’s Pro14 game between Edinburgh and Glasgow at Murrayfield.

This week’s request from the SPFL to extend the experiment to the weekend match at Parkhead was rejected just hours after a scheduled Zoom meeting between the SFA-SPFL Joint Response Group and Joe FitzPatrick, Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing, was scrapped at short notice.

While Hampden sources were ‘bemused’ at the decision, the Scottish Government remained adamant that it was looking for ‘suitable alternative dates’ for football pilots. Asked yesterday if allegations of preferential treatment towards rugby were justified, the First Minister replied: ‘No, that is not the case.

‘And, of course, I understand the frustrations that many people in many different walks of life are feeling right now because life isn’t normal and we’re all really anxious to get life back to normal. But let me just be clear what we’re doing here with these trial events with spectators back into stadiums.

‘We’re not trialling how it works in rugby versus football.

‘I’ll let you into a secret here — the virus doesn’t care about the shape of the ball at these events.

‘What we are testing is how we can operate within a stadium with spectators and maintain and comply with all of the physical distancing and other hygiene rules. So the learning from rugby will apply to football, because, as I say, it’s not specific to rugby versus football.

‘The virus really doesn’t care what sport it is, it just cares about having people to transmit from one to the other around.

‘So, the test event that will go ahead at Murrayfield will allow us to learn and to apply those lessons across different sports.

‘And, hopefully, in the not too distant future, we’ll be able to move into having — albeit a limited number of — spectators in stadiums for a whole variety of different sports, not on a test or pilot basis but on a more general basis.

‘I would ask spectators and fans, whether it’s football or rugby, to bear with us just now.

‘We’re trying to find the safest ways of getting as much normality back as possible. It’s not about preferring rugby over football, or football over rugby, or any sport over any other sport.

‘It’s just trying to keep people as safe as possible as we try to get life back to as much normality as possible.’

Sturgeon recently outlined a relaxation of rules relating to sport and the pandemic, with supporters set to return in restricted numbers to stadiums from September 14.

Despite the First Minister showing football a yellow card following breaches of protocols by eight Aberdeen players and Celtic’s Boli Bolingoli, just three Scottish footballers have tested positive for Covid-19.

Hamilton manager Brian Rice yesterday insisted he was ‘surprised’ that the First Minister had knocked back the SPFL’s request for a test event at Celtic Park.

And he fears that, if Holyrood does not lift the ban on mass gatherings soon, thousands of supporters will not return through the turnstiles — with devastating financial consequences for Scottish clubs.

‘Obviously, that decision was very disappointing because we need the fans back, football is all about them,’ said Rice. ‘Of course I’m surprised by it.

‘Like everyone else, I’m going to the supermarket and you’re bumping into people. You go to other places and there are people there but we can’t have people inside a football ground.

‘Celtic Park, which was talked about for the test event, holds 60,000, so the fans could have had a row each to themselves.

‘But there’s obviously a good reason behind it and I’m definitely not criticising because it’s done with the best will and the best intentions for the health and safety of everybody. However, it’s difficult when we see other sports being allowed to do it.

‘Will some people stay away? People find other things to do. Men who used to go to a match on a Saturday might have taken their kids golfing or to the cinema because it’s a good way to spend time with their family.

‘But it’s definitely the case that, once you lose people like we have, it’s very hard to attract them back and that’s something we need to be mindful of. In my opinion, coming to the football will never be the same again.’